BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A gunman went on a rampage in the capital yesterday, killing seven people and wounding 15, then committed suicide, officials said.
Five of the fatalities were members of a Roma family who lived in an apartment where the man began his attack with a machine gun and two pistols, said Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic.
Roma, also known as Gypsies, often face discrimination in Eastern Europe, but Lipsic and Police Chief Jaroslav Spisiak said the unidentified gunman’s motive was not known.
Another man shot and killed outside the building was probably a member of the same family, Lipsic said.
The shooting took place at midmorning in the rundown Devinska Nova Ves neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital.
Police rushed to the scene as the attacker, about 50 years old, was leaving the building, and he fired indiscriminately at people in the area, wounding 15, including a policeman and a 3-year-old boy who was shot in the ear, Lipsic said.
The seventh fatality was a woman who was shot as she walked to the balcony of her apartment when she heard the gunfire, Lipsic said.
Daniel Zitnan of Bratislava’s Children’s Hospital said the 3-year-old was released and had been in a car hit by bullets.
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